www.ewin.northwest.nhs.uk/

GOOD PRACTICECASE STUDY

SUMMARY

Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is fully committed to the health and wellbeing of its employees. The Trust wants to do as much as it can to enable its employees to be at their best, be energised, motivated and committed to their work. An Engagement and Wellbeing strategy has been devised in order to address the health and wellbeing of staff by promoting and communicating the vast range of initiatives available. This will lead to a more engaged workforce and therefore improve the service user experience at Calderstones.

The Trust had a Healthy Workplace Group which was developed under Improving Working Lives (IWL) in 2004. This group re-launched in 2011 by changing its name to Engagement & Wellbeing in the Workplace and now meet quarterly to develop initiatives for the Trust. This Engagement & Wellbeing Committee group are responsible for monitoring, communicating and implementing the strategy which is a best practice case study in the Boorman Report. The Trust reviews its membership of the Committee to ensure all stakeholders are represented and have joint responsibility in the strategy implementation and delivery.

KEY OUTCOMES

• SicknessAbsence:There has been a reduction in sickness absence rates from 6.03% in 2009/10 to 5.81% in 2010/11. This has led to a reduction in spending in budgets from £1,781,572.36 in 2009/10 to £1,699,047.88 in 2010/11 i.e. a saving of 4.63%

• FluCampaign:Staff uptake for the flu vaccine has increased from 20% in 2009/10, to 23% in 2010/11 and 36.36% in 2011/12.

• StaffEngagement:Staff survey results demonstrate that staff engagement rose slightly from 3.6 in 2010 to 3.62 in 2011 – being measured on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being poorly engaged and 5 being highly engaged. This score is close to the average of 3.64 for Trusts similar to Calderstones.

• Improvedappraisalsystem:Staff survey results also show that 44% of staff felt they had a well structured appraisal in the last 12 months compared to the national average of 39%.

CAldErStonESPArtnErShIPnhSFoundAtIontruSt

ENGAGEMENT AND WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE

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GOOD PRACTICECASE STUDY

Benefitstostaff

• Greaterawarenessofincentives:Communication through mediums such as the intranet, HR newsletter, global emails, team brief, posters and briefing sessions have led to staff having a greater awareness of the incentives in place to improve their wellbeing at work and in their personal life. Staff are now aware of what is available to them and how they can access help and support.

• BetteraccesstoGym: Calderstones had an on-site gym which was shared between service users and staff (staff only had access after 4pm until 7am). Staff now have their own on-site gym for 24/7 access at just £10 a month. Gym fees are spent on replacing and updating gym equipment so the members can see the reinvestment and experience the benefits.

• Accesstoaffordabletherapies:Complimentary therapies are available to staff for less than half the price of the beauty salons. Staff can access reflexology, aromatherapy and reiki treatments on their lunch breaks or after work as a good way to relax and de-stress.

• Feelmorevalued: Surveys have been carried out gathering feedback from staff on the reward and recognition in place. This allows staff to feel their suggestions are taken on-board, and allows the Trust, as an employer, to provide schemes with the knowledge that staff will feel valued and appreciated for their service.

• Betterequippedforstress: Stress awareness training has been delivered to managers so they are aware of how their own behaviour can have an impact on others. Managers also receive training on how to recognise the signs of stress and how to support their staff members suffering from personal or work related stress. This support can be in the form of; referrals to occupational health, advising a phased return back to work after a long period of sickness or by using the stress analysis tool supported by HSE. This enables managers to identify the areas at work which are causing

stress and from this, they can put a plan in place to support staff at work.

kEyAImS

• Increase the health and wellbeing of the workforce.

• Assist the Trust in meeting its overarching vision, aim and objectives.

• Deliver a collaborative approach in managing the reduction of sickness absence.

• Meet the required Governance Standards which encompass employee health and wellbeing (Appendix 1, NHS Governance)

• Meet requirements set in the NHS Constitution ‘Pledges to Staff’

• Deliver the wellbeing brand and communicate to raise wellbeing awareness, understanding and visibility for all employees.

• Deliver a collaborative approach to the development and implementation of wellbeing actions across wellbeing stakeholders.

• Involve staff in the development and implementation of wellbeing actions.

• Equip line managers to support the wellbeing of their staff/team.

• Encourage staff to increase their own wellbeing.

kEyStAGESoFSEt-uP

Engagement&Wellbeingstrategy

In January 2011, the Director of Workforce and Development produced the Engagement & Wellbeing strategy, together with an action plan based on the four staff pledges of the NHS Constitution, which received full support from the Board and HR Committee.

EngagementandWellbeing Committee

A working group was then formed called the Engagement and Wellbeing Committee to develop and implement this strategy. It was important to ensure that the commit-tee was made up of a representative from each service so that actions and feedback to move the strategy forward would be thorough and considered all staff groups. Therefore, the committee has stakeholders from the following areas:

- Staff - Finance- Staff Side - Line Managers - Health and Safety - Human Resources - Learning and Development - Senior Management - Governance - Executive Director/Non Executive Director

BACkGround

Calderstones formed as an NHS Trust in 1993 and authorised as an NHS Foundation Trust on the 1st April 2009, employing approximately 1520 specialised and experienced staff. The Trust provides an extensive range of in-patient and community services, exclusively for people with learning and associated disabilities. The Trust’s purpose is to provide high quality person-centred services, designed and delivered to make the most of social inclusion, health and wellbeing.

The Trust Headquarters are based in Whalley, Lancashire. Within the North West region boundary the Trust provides contracted services for Greater Manchester and Lancashire, serving a population base of 6,603,000. 158 service users currently live in the Trust’s community homes, with a further 237 service users receiving care and treatment at Calderstones, Gisburn Lodge, Lancaster, and at Scott House in Rochdale. In addition, specialist support is also provided by the Forensic Support Team.

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GOOD PRACTICECASE STUDY

CommunicationThe next step was to communicate the strategy to all staff and to begin to implement it along with the action plan. All staff were invited to attend briefing sessions in August 2011 to learn more about the new strategy and what it aimed to achieve. Staff were asked to share their suggestions for improving areas of wellbeing and engagement and some of these were added to the action plan. Also at the briefing sessions, it was explained how the results from the staff survey are also being addressed through the strategy.

For those unable to attend the briefing sessions, they could find the strategy on the intranet and it was also communicated through global email, team brief and HR newsletter.

ContinualdevelopmentOngoing work with the strategy included continuing to develop initiatives to assist staff with their health and wellbeing. New schemes and reminders of current ones, such as the on-site staff gym, were communicated out to staff via various methods i.e. team brief, newsletters, global emails and on the intranet so that the information was available to everyone.

hoWItWorkS

In developing and implementing the engagement and wellbeing strategy the Trust has:

• Demonstrated how it is addressing the staff pledges, which are part of the NHS Constitution.

• Started to implement the recommenda-tions from the Boorman review on NHS Health and Wellbeing.

• Addressed issues from the staff survey and actioned recommendations.

• Collated current data on sickness absence, staff turnover and average salaries to provide a benchmark.

• Identified current initiatives in place.

• Identified the anticipated benefits to the organisation

• Accessed the SHA funded places on various training events linked to this agenda.

• Identified the enablers and blockers to developing this strategy for wellbeing and engagement and then devised an action plan to address these.

BrandingPrior to the creation of the Engagement and Wellbeing Strategy the Trust had a variety of initiatives in place to the promote staff health and wellbeing. However these initiatives were not branded, and thus were not always linked to the Trust helping staff. By creating a logo, Calderstones can now brand all its health and wellbeing initiatives, and this logo can be used for all engagement and wellbeing matters in order for staff to make that link.

EngagementandWellbeingChampionshipThe Engagement and Wellbeing at Work Group members are responsible for achieving the Trust’s commitment to engagement and wellbeing, which involves the following responsibilities:

• Identifying initiatives to improve employee Engagement and Wellbeing

• Identifying initiatives to embed the NHS Constitution Staff Pledges

• Reviewing employee views (i.e. output from staff survey/focus groups) and develop action plans for improvements

• Agreeing leads for new initiatives and areas for action

• Being fully committed to the achievement of agreed actions

• Monitoring progress against action plans

• Acting as ambassadors for employee engagement, health and wellbeing in their work area

• Representing their work area by contributing any issues and ideas and communicating updates on new initiatives within their area

• All members will be expected to implement and share ownership of all decisions made at the Group

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GOOD PRACTICECASE STUDY

PhySICAlACtIvItIES

• On-site staff gym with 24/7 access at just £10 a month. Membership fees are spent on servicing and replacing the gym equipment.

• Staff can borrow bikes at break times free of charge

• Maps are available for planned walks in the area

• NHS Discounts are promoted at DW gyms for those staff who don’t work on-site, so that they don’t miss out on improving their physical activity.

• Calderstones Games – this is an annual on-site event involving service users and staff (money for this allocated from the Executive Team). The first one will take place in September 2012, to tie in with celebrating the Olympic Games.

• Participation in the North West NHS Games 2011 (football team won bronze, netball won 4th place and badminton also did well). Planning underway for 2012.

• Promote various schemes/events e.g.Walk to Work week, Sports Relief, Swim to Work scheme

• Had a golf taster session on-site March 2012 where staff could talk to an expert from England Golf and sign up to a £25 5 week programme at a local golf club

CommunICAtIon

• Engagement & Wellbeing intranet page – where staff can access all updates/news/benefits that’s in place and available to them.

• Calderstones promotes the NHS Constitution on induction to new starters

• Sending all staff a health assessment questionnaire to find out their thoughts and suggestions on their health at work and what the Trust can do to improve it.

• Promoting the North West NHS staff lottery

hEAlth&WEllBEInG

• 24 hour access to a rest room with vending machines/microwave – previously staff may have sat in their cars or on the wards when working nights.

• Flu vaccinations offered at the workplace for those staff who are unable to travel on-site.

• Specsavers eye scheme where staff can have a free eye test and pair of glasses (if a regular VDU user). This is at no extra cost to Calderstones.

• Healthy eating options available at the canteen.

• Complimentary therapies offered on-site for staff to access during their breaks. Direct cost is between staff member delivering the treatment and employee.

• On-site library for staff to access for books to help with studies or fiction for leisure reading.

• Ordering and distributing publications from the British Heart Foundation to help staff with stress, healthy eating and staying active – all free of charge.

• Free counselling sessions

• Treatments to ensure staff return from long term sickness more promptly- such as expediting appointments for NHS treatments or providing physiotherapy via the Occupational Health Service.

StAFFAPPrECIAtIon

• Letters are sent to staff acknowledging 100% attendance – from this staff feel appreciated and valued.

• Childcare voucher scheme with fidelity – no charge on tax or national insurance.

• Long service awards

• Retirement gifts and party

RESOURCES

Prior to developing the engagement and wellbeing strategy the Trust already funded a number of initiatives. so there is zero cost in implementing the strategy itself, and no set budget. The only resource required is the time of committee group members who meet quarterly and act as champions throughout the rest of the year.

Several activities are self-funded. For instance, the new equipment in the gym is paid for through gym membership fees. The staff gym budget also directly funds the NHS NW Games, so that it’s not only reinvesting in the gym equipment, but also in physical

activity. In 2011 this cost £1000, however with more organisations taking part the cost this year is expected to decrease.

The Trust also works collaboratively with external organisations who offer staff discounts and provide free publications.

Finally, communication costs are kept to a minimum by engaging with staff via the intranet, HR newsletter, global emails, team brief, posters and briefing sessions.

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GOOD PRACTICECASE STUDY

kEyChAllEnGES

• It was difficult to get buy-in from staff as to what the Trust was trying to achieve. This was overcome by communicating the vision and giving staff information on all of the individual initiatives and benefits available, and how they can access them. Staff were also asked for feedback and some of their ideas for improvements were added into the action plan.

• The committee is working with zero funding. Therefore it has had to find creative ways to run activities and has sought out organisations that provide their services for free. For example, England Golf came on-site to deliver a golf taster session to staff free of charge.

kEylEArnInG

• Communicating with staff is very important, and it is vital to use as many methods as possible to ensure that you reach everyone.

• Interest should be gauged in an activity before committing to it, rather than assuming that it is what staff want. This can be achieved by sending a survey around staff asking them about their health and wellbeing and the activities currently available, so that the Trust can be assured it is meeting their needs.

• Need to focus on the fun element of promoting physical activity to staff so that it is more appealing.

SuStAInABIlIty

The Engagement and Wellbeing Committee now has full support from the Board for this new strategy and group meetings are held quarterly to go over comments from feedback sessions and check that the action plan is maintained.

Bi-annually communication sessions are held for staff where they can receive feedback and progress with the strategy and also provide their own feedback and suggestions. Through listening to feedback the committee has already been able to implement some of their

suggestions for improvements, which helps to drive engagement.

New developments are also communicated via the intranet, HR newsletter, posters, team brief and global emails.

NEXT STEPS

Going forward the Trust will:-

• Continue to embed the strategy

• Review the committee’s Terms of Reference annually

• Seek funding as required to develop new initiatives

• Gather results from staff and service user annual surveys

• Use the staff survey to assess the impact that the strategy has had, in order to move it forward.

• Amend the four staff pledges to six on the action plan in light of the changes to the NHS Constitution.

• Provide further training for managers on managing staff wellbeing in order to change the culture of ‘well I coped in my day’

SuPPortInGmAtErIAl

The following resources are available as an appendix to this case study

• Appendix1-Summary of National NHS Wellbeing and Engagement Programmes, NHS Governance and National Engagement Programmes

• Appendix2-Engagement and Wellbeing Strategy

• Appendix3- Engagement and Wellbeing Terms of Reference

• Appendix4- Staff Benefits Banner

• Appendix5- – Staff Benefits Poster

• Appendix6-– Gym Poster

FurthErlInkS

www.calderstones.nhs.uk

ContACtForFurthErInFormAtIon• AmandaCloughHRManager

Email: amanda.clough@calderstones.nhs.uk

telephone:(01254) 821657

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